JUST NEWS
Justiciary Office
High Court of Justiciary
Parliament House, Edinburgh EH1 1RQ
Telephone: 0131 225 2595 –
email:[email protected]
NEWSLETTER FROM JUSTICIARY OFFICE
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1
Justiciary Office
2
Parliament House
This is the newsletter for customers of Justiciary Office. We will
invite feedback and may publish future editions.
Justiciary Office Redevelopment
4
Justiciary Office Report
7
“This is what you said”
8
Telephone contact details
9
Public Holidays
10
Following the Criminal Appeals Project to review Justiciary Office
appeals processes and procedures we are now undertaking a
similar Quality Improvement Project (QUIP) to identify
performance improvements in First Instance.
What do you think?
Page 2
JUST NEWS
SECOND PHASE OF
PARLIAMENT HOUSE REFURBISHMENT
Parliament House Redevelopment
Phase 2 – Notice of Implications
Phase 1 of the Parliament House is coming to completion and preparation for Phase 2 is
well under way. This briefing note explains the consequences for users of the building for
the change over from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the Redevelopment Project.
Phase 1
Phase 1 involved the redevelopment of the Bank Building to the east of the complex.
Courts 4 and 5 were out of use whilst they were being upgraded. They came back into
use as of Monday 2 November 2009.
Phase 2
Phase 2 comprises works to the Reid Building – that is the central part of the complex
which contains Courts 1, 2 and 3. The whole of this building has been taken out of use
and become a contractor’s site for the duration of the works. The due date for
completion is March 2012. During that period there will be significant changes to the
circulation around Parliament House. The key issue will be that there is no east-west
circulation within the building at any level. All circulation will be via the colonnades to
the front of the building. There will, in effect, be 2 separate buildings each of which
will have reception facilities. These are at Door 11, which is the current reception, and
at Door 2, at the opposite end of the building, where a new reception has been created.
The restaurant at -1 will remain open during the contract. Access to it will be from the
staircase at the end of the Box Corridor only. In the event of an emergency the current
second means of escape at the servery/kitchen end of the dining room will be
maintained for use.
Door 11 will maintain access to Parliament Hall, the Faculty of Advocates building, the
Solicitors of the Supreme Courts of Scotland (via the Box Corridor) and Courts 9 to 14.
This reception will be open 24 hours/day as at present.
Door 2 will provide access to Courts 4 to 8, the Offices of Court and Justiciary. The
reception at this door will be open from 9am to 5pm. The outer doors will be open
Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 7.00pm for access by staff using their swipe cards.
The business that was dealt with by Court 1 will move to Court 9 which has been
temporarily adapted for use as a Civil Appeal Court. It will also be used as the
ceremonial court. The business from Court 2 will move to the new Court 5 which has also
been developed to permit its use as a Civil Appeal Court.
New changing facilities have been developed for the male advocates. These are in a
room off the Leigh Hall at -1. For the duration of Phase 2 the only access to the changing
rooms will be from the Leigh Hall. Emergency escape will be maintained to the corridor
near the restaurant kitchen.
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JUST NEWS
Page 3
1A Parliament Square
The minimum number of courts which it is agreed will remain available during the
redevelopment project is 12. With the loss of 3 courts during Phase 2 this would reduce
the available number of courts in Parliament House to 11. The situation would be even
worse during Phase 3 when there are 6 courts to be redeveloped. In order to address this
issue, and supplement the courts available during Phases 2 and 3, SCS has taken a lease
on 1A Parliament Square, the former District Court, and have converted the 2 courts in
this building for use by the Court of Session.
The 2 courts will be known as Court 15 and 16 and there will be a dedicated reception in
this facility to serve these 2 courts. The courts will be used as and when required to
meet the business requirements of the Court of Session.
Page 4
JUST NEWS
JusticiaryText
Office Report
1.
Management Information & Workload
2003/
04
Indictments registered 1387
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
/05
/06
/07
/08
/09
1234
1104
1171
1005
920
358
259
303
414
446
382
Solemn Appeals
Lodged
1063
1019
925
954
953
765
Summary Appeals
Lodged
2322
2000
1876
1770
1475
1546
Trials
(Evidence led)
Waiting periods as at end October 2009
First Sift
Leave to appeal from the time the Sheriff’s/Judge’s report is received by Justiciary Office to
allocation to a single judge - 6 days (Target 1 week)
Second Sift
From intimation of appeal against refusal at first sift to allocation to 2/3 judges - 12 days
(Target 2 weeks)
Solemn
Appeals against sentence – 8.6 weeks (target 9 weeks)
Appeals against conviction (and sentence) – 88* weeks (target 17 term weeks)
* this figure includes 2 complex cases from 2004. The adjusted figure is 38 weeks
Summary
Appeals against sentence – 7 weeks (target 9 weeks)
Appeals against conviction (and sentence) – 16 weeks (target 6 term weeks)
Bills of Suspension (from date lodged – 11 weeks (target 4 term weeks)
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Page 5
JUST NEWS
Following the Criminal Appeals Project last year, we redesigned the appeals
systems within Justiciary Office to improve work flow.
Implementation of the re-designed systems have resulted in:

A 25% reduction in the length of time taken for a summary sentence
appeal to get to first appeal hearing

A significantly reduced abandon rate

A significantly reduced withdrawal rate for summary sentence appeals

A 47% reduction in length of time for solemn sentence appeals registered
to first appeal hearing

A significantly reduced abandoned rate for solemn sentence appeals

A reduced withdrawal rate for solemn appeals
There were also a number of improvements to appeal waiting times.
SUMMARY APPEALS
Length of time
from date
registered to first
appeal hearing
(note 6)
Average 101
days
Average 74.5 days
25% improvement
Percentage
granted at 1st sift
39%
31% (sample 256 8%
cases since 6/10/08)
Percentage
granted at 2nd sift
31% (reduced to
11% for cases in
August and
September)
31% (sample 108 No change
cases since 6/10/08)
Percentage
withdrawals (note
8)
19% (sample 240
cases July –
September)
6.4% (sample 278 12.6%
cases since 6/10/08) improvement
(sample 105 cases)
Page 6
JUST NEWS
SOLEMN APPEALS
Percentage
abandoned
15%
2.5%
Percentage
withdrawals
7% (243 cases
sampled between
July – Sept 2008)
6.4%
(278
cases 0.6%
sampled between July – improvement
Sept 2008)
Length of time
from appeal
lodged to first
appeal hearing
date (Sentence)
Average 187.1
days
Average 97.4 days
(sample 48 cases
disposed off
during April –
June 2008)
(sample 27 cases 13 Oct
08 -16 Jan 09)
12.5%
improvement
47%
improvement
Length of time
Average 44 days
from Intimation of
Intention to
Appeal to order of
charge issued
Those typed in-house
now average 4 days from
registration to charge
received ( 34 days for the
Sheriff Court cases).This
figure includes 4 cases
that had to be digitally
enhanced.
91%
improvement
in High Court
cases.
Number of
181 as at 25th
solemn conviction November 2008
cases sitting
between appeal
lodged and
appeal hearing
date set
58 of the cases are
currently waiting to
proceed (48 have
estimates of court time)
70% reduction
We are currently
scheduling these cases

The new work flows for summary business and solemn sentence business have
lead to a significant reduction in time from note of appeal registered to first
appeal hearing set.

There has been a 40% reduction in Solemn conviction cases outstanding
between registered and appeal hearing scheduled

There has been a significant reduction in abandon rates for summary sentence
and solemn sentence cases.

There has been a significant reduction in defence withdrawal rates for summary
and solemn cases.
In addition the project has lead to a number of communication sessions with the
key stakeholders inc; Judges, Crown Office, Defence Counsel, Scottish Legal Aid
Board and the Prison Service.
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Page 7
JUST NEWS
Choices
It is important to us that we meet your
needs and a key part of this is making sure
that the service we provide offers you
choice.
Could we improve the choices we offer?
Please let us know by getting in touch with
Ian Horne
[email protected]
0131 240 6913
Office opening times
Justiciary Office opens at 10.30 every Monday morning.
We use this time for our training and development. It is
therefore important that, unless you have urgent
business, you don’t come into the department until then.
Justiciary Office opening hours are:
10.30 am - 5 pm Mon,
9.00 am - 5pm -Tues, Wed, Thurs.
9.00 am - 4.45 pm Fri.
Opening hours over Christmas and New Year
Justiciary Office will be closed on the
following days Thursday 24 December 2009 from 12.30pm
Friday 25 December 2009 – all day
Monday 28 December 2009 – all day
Friday 1 January 2010 – all day
Monday 4 January 2010 – all day
See the Rolls of Court for further information.
Page 8
JUST NEWS
Parliament House – top car park protocol
When delivering or uplifting awkward or excessively large productions by taxi at the
Justiciary Office please phone in advance to let us know that you are coming and what
time to expect you. We’ll let security know that you’re coming.
The numbers to call are:
 First Instance – 0131 240 6908
 Solemn Appeals – 0131 240 6909
 Summary Appeals – 0131 240 6912
Please have your security pass with you at all times.
Access to the car park will be denied if these procedures are not adhered to.
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Page 9
JUST NEWS
Fire alarm and evacuation
Your normal route for leaving Parliament
House may not be the safest in the event of a
fire.
If the fire alarm sounds when you are in
Justiciary Office, court staff will lead you to
the best escape route. Please follow their
instructions.
Lodging Papers for Court
When papers are lodged in Justiciary Office for court the next day, we always do
our best to prepare them and get them in the judges' bags for 4pm the same night
but we are often cutting it fine when the statutory time limits are not observed.
Please ensure that any such documents are delivered in plenty of time (no later
than 3.30pm) as the staff in Justiciary Office have to mark them up before they go.
It could result in the documents not going out and the judges not having a chance
to read them before court.
NOTE: When lodging papers for the Appeal Court, the following copies are
required:
Sentence Appeals – 3 copies (2 for judges, 1 for clerk)
Conviction Appeals – 4 copies (3 for judges, 1 for clerk)
Faxes/Emails
Please note that faxed documents and emails have been lodged in/sent to
Justiciary in order to preserve time limits. This has often caused a problem as the
original document has then not been lodged and we have had to request it (in one
case it came 4 weeks after the fax). Please note that we cannot accept faxed or
emailed documents in place of the original except where statute so allows. Time
limits will only be preserved if we receive the original document by the due date.
Faxed or emailed documents will not preserve such time limits.
Page 10
JUST NEWS
We Did
You Said
You said: “It would be helpful if there was a directory of the names
and numbers of clerks and the areas of responsibility”
We did: We’ve added a section to this newsletter with key direct dial
telephone numbers and areas of responsibility of staff in Justiciary
Office
You said: Can the vending machines be re-installed on level -2
We did: These machines have been removed for health and safety
reason. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this.
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Page 11
JUST NEWS
Telephone contact details
JUSTICIARY OFFICE
All numbers should be preceded with 0131 240
First Instance Section
Jenny Kelly
Alastair Marshall
Hannah Eamer
Keren O’Hare (Team Leader)
6907
6852
6953
6908
Preliminary Hearings Minute Clerk
Elaine Cranston
6946
First Instance Manager
Alan Thompson
6928
Summary Appeals Section
Stefani Gibbons
Sandy McKay
Gillian Quinn
Laura Hastie (Team Leader)
6914
6903
6901
6912
Solemn Appeals Section
Elaine Hunter
Nicola Mallace
Michael Stanners
Archie Falconer
Hazel Bell (Team Leader)
6910
6911
6947
6958
6909
Deputy Appeals Manager
Fiona Merrilees
6957
Appeals Manager
Joe Moyes
6902
Office Manager Justiciary Office, Edinburgh
Luz Sexto
6905
Officer in Charge of Justiciary Office
Ian Horne
6913
Deputy Principal Clerk of Justiciary
Gillian Prentice
6869
GLASGOW HIGH COURT
First Instance Manager
Allan Hutchison
0141 559 4516
Office Manager Justiciary Office
Eve Henderson
0141 559 4577
Page 12
JUST NEWS
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
The High Court will be closed on the following dates:













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
24 Dec 2009 from 12.30pm
25 Dec 2009
28 Dec 2009
01 Jan 2010
04 Jan 2010
02 Apr 2010
05 Apr 2010
19 Apr 2010
03 May 2010
17 May 2010
20 Sep 2010
29 Nov 2010
24 Dec 2010 from 12.30pm
27 Dec 2010
28 Dec 2010
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JUST NEWS
Page 13
What do you think?
Justiciary Office continually seeks to improve the service and choice for its customers and
partners. In order to improve the quality of information we provide about our performance we
would like to offer you the opportunity to comment on the content of this newsletter. Please
read the following questions and pass your views and comments to us by fax, email or letter
using the details given below:
1. How well did you understand the contents of this report?
2. How well does this information meet your needs?
3. Did it cover aspects which you are interested in or you feel are relevant?
4. What other relevant issues or information do you feel you should be included or covered in
any future issues?
Send your answers to:
Letter
Ian Horne,
Officer in Charge of Justiciary Office
High Court of Justiciary
Parliament House,
Parliament Square
Edinburgh
EH1 1RQ
Email
[email protected]
Fax
0131 240 6915